PAL to collect P703M from pilots in '98 strike

Manila Bulletin
September 12, 2011
By Leonardo D. Postrado

MANILA, Philippines -- Philippine Airlines (PAL) received the green light from the Court of Appeals (CA) to collect more than P730 million in damages from the Airline Pilots Association of the Philippines (ALPAP) and its former officers who went on strike in 1998, paralyzing the flag-carrier’s international and domestic operations.

The CA’s 13th Division ruled to modify the Feb. 26, 2010 decision of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) dismissing the complaint for damages filed by PAL because of “lack of jurisdiction” and “prescription.”

In a 26-page decision penned by Associate Justice Ramon Cruz, the appellate court stated that the NLRC exercised grave abuse in discretion when it ruled against PAL’s complaint on the basis that it failed to file for damages within the three-year prescription period from the time of the strike.

The CA favored PAL’s argument that the time for filing the petition for damages only came after a final ruling from the Supreme Court (SC) declaring the June, 1998 ALPAP strike as illegal, and not before that.

Until the issue pertaining to the legality of the strike is finally settled, the filing of the suit for damages is premature or considered a “groundless suit,” the CA ruled.

“The Supreme Court decision resolving the illegality of the strike attained finality only on Aug. 29, 2002. It was only then that private respondents’ act of abandoning their aircrafts had been declared illegal and hence, they could already be held culpable for causing injury to petitioner’s business, assuming such could be proven by the petitioner,” the CA said.

It added: “Stated differently, petitioner’s cause of action only accrued upon finality of the Supreme Court decision declaring private respondents’ strike to be illegal.”

Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Jose Reyes, Jr. and Antonio Villamor.

On June 5, 1998, the ALPAP officers and members went on what PAL claimed was a “deliberate work strike” since it coincided with the peak season for air travel, summer vacation, and at a time when thousands of Filipinos overseas were set to travel to the Philippines for the 1998 Centennial Celebration.

PAL, on the second day of the strike, asserted that the protesting ALPAP pilots abandoned their respective assigned aircraft, together with their passengers and cargo at the airports in Bangkok, Thailand and San Fransciso, USA.

As a result, the passengers were stranded, rendering PAL liable for violation of its contract of carriage and forcing it to incur expenses by way of hotel accommodations and meals for passengers, airport parking fees and other operational expenses.

The illegal strike stage by ALPAP pilots also crippled PAL’s operations, resulting in losses consisting of ticket refunds, extraordinary expenses to cope with the shutdown and lost income from cancelled flights.